Personal microfilm medical record assembly

ABSTRACT

A wrist-band having a holder attached thereto and retaining a microfilm which carries photographically recorded medical information relating to the wearer of the device.

United States Patent Crosby Oct. 28, 1975 1 PERSONAL MICROFILM MEDICAL 1,701,595 2/1929 Taylor 206/38 R x RECORD ASSEMBLY 2,753,460 7/1956 Reed et a1...

3,339,729 9/1967 Becker 206/486 X Inventor: William y, h Place, 3,402,808 9/1968 Yannuzzi 206/38 R x Long Beach, Calif. 90803 [22] Filed: June 8, 1973 Primary Examiner-William I. Price Assistant Examiner-Steven M. Pollard 21 A l. N 36 I 1 pp 8266 Attorney, Agent, or FirmWilliam P. Green [52] US. Cl. 206/38; 206/459; 206/534 [51] Int. Cl A45c 11/18; A45c l/OO [57] ABSTRACT 58 F 1d f Se h 6 1 1e 0 arc A wrist-band having a holder attached thereto and re- 206/486, 459, 534, /39 taming a microfilm which carries photographically re- [56] References Cited corded medical information relating to the wearer of UNITED STATES PATENTS the meme 1,486,629 3/1924 Buchsbaum 206/45.14 4 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures US. Patent Oct. 28, 1975 PERSONAL MICROFILM MEDICAL RECORD ASSEMBLY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to improved devices for enabling a person to carry readily accessible and rather complete and detailed personal medical information, including all critical blood characteristics of the wearer, his medical history with respect to illnesses, injuries, special medications or treatments, allergies, adverse reactions to different medications, immunities, etc., as well as of course, his name, address, nearest relative, and the like.

Various different types of identification tags, bracelets, and the like have been provided in the past for carrying information relating to the wearer, such as his blood type, etc. However, the prior devices of this type .with which I am familiar have been inherently incapable of carrying more than a very minimal amount of medical information, insufficient in many instances to convey to a doctor or nurse under emergency conditions sufficient details to assure proper treatment of the patient. Further, many of these devices have been designed in a manner such that their cost must necessarily be too great to allow use of the devices on any wide scale. As a result, most individuals do not today carry with them any such medical information, and therefore emergency treatment must in most cases be given without the aid of any personal background information on the individual being treated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a unique type of device which can be very simple in structure and low in cost, and yet which can carry a very large amount of information readily accessible to a doctor or nurse at time of treatment, and in many instances giving an almost complete medical history of all significant information relating to the wearer. Further, the information is in such form that it can be easily and quickly replaced at periodic intervals by up-dated more current information, so that at all times the wearer has on his person a completely up-to-date medical history of all pertinent information.

Structurally the device includes a wrist-band, which may if desired be the band of a wrist-watch, and which carries a holder at a readily accessible location on the band. The holder in turn carries a small microfilm on which the critical medical and identification information is carried in photographic form. At the time of emergency, the microfilm may be removed from the users wrist, and be placed in a conventional reader, enabling a doctor to view and study as carefully as he wishes all of the medical information thereon. The microfilm is desirably protected by a covering or coating of waterproof material, protecting the microfilm against damage by moisture or other substances which may be contacted. The microfilm holder may take the form of a unit having tabs adapted to be bent about the wrist-band in a manner detachably securing the holder thereto, and preferably also having a second pair of tabs which are bendable to positions for retention of the microfilm itself. The holder may have an outer desirably rectangular portion received at the outer side of the wrist-band, with the microfilm and the second mentioned pair of tabs being located between that portion and the wrist-band.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The above and other features and objects of the invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the typical embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGS. 1 and la are perspective views of two wristband type medical identification assemblies embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view showing the appearance of the outer side of the microfilm holder of FIG. I or FIG. la, and showing a portion of the wrist-band;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are enlarged sections taken on lines 33 and 44 respectively of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a back view taken on line 55 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 shows the configuration ofa sheet metal blank which may be utilized as the microfilm holder;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the holder with the microfilm mounted therein but before application of the holder to the wrist-band; and

FIG. 8 shows the manner of application of the FIG. 7 holder and microfilm to the wrist-band.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to FIG. 1, I have shown in that figure an identification assembly 10 including a wrist-band adapted to be worn about the wrist of a wearer, and carrrying a holder 12 within which a microfilm 13 (FIGS. 3 and 4) carrying medical information is contained. The wrist-band 11 may also carry a wrist-watch 113, or may be a simple bracelet as indicated at 11a in FIG. 1a. In FIG. 1, the wrist-band or strap 11 is illustrated as having two separable portions 14 and 15, one of which carries a buckle 16 to which the apertured end 17 of the other portion 14 is detachably and adjustably connectable to fasten the band on the users wrist.

The microfilm 13 is desirably cut to the shape of a rectangle (See FIGS. 2 and 7), having a width dimension w corresponding approximately to the width W of wrist-band ll transversely of its longitudinal axis 18. The length of the rectangular microfilm in the direction of longitudinal axis 18 of the wrist-band is designated 1 in FIG. 2. The planar microfilm 13 is received at the outer side of the wrist-band, essentially parallel to the outer surface 19 (FIG. 3) of the wrist-band but spaced a short distance therefrom. To protect the microfilm against damage from moisture, contaminants in the air, or the like, both of the inner and outer surfaces 20 and 21 as well as the peripheral edges 22 of the microfilm are preferably coated or covered continuously by a waterproof, air-impermeable layer of transparent protective material 122. This protective coating may be a suitable air and water impermeable resinous plastic material sprayed onto and cured and hardened in place on the microfilm, or may be a pre-formed plastic sheet material adhered to the opposite faces and about the periphery of the microfilm.

With regard now to FIG. 6, the microfilm holder 12 is desirably initially stamped from an appropriate thin and easily deformable metal or other sheet material, which is capable of being bent from the initial FIG. 6 planar form to the condition of FIGS. 1 to 5, and which when bent to that condition will by its own stiffness remain in the bent state for retention thereby on the wrist-band 11. For example, the holder may be stamped from a thin sheet of brass, copper, steel, or the like, adapted for ready deformability by hand but hav ing sufficient stiffness to effectively remain in any condition to which it is bent until forceably deformed to an altered condition.

The blank of FIG. 6 which forms the holder may be considered as having a rectangular main portion 23 which carries two oppositely directed side tabs 24, and a second pair of oppositely directed end tabs 25. The two tabs 24 meet the main rectangular panel or portion 23 of the holder along two parallel hinge lines 26 and 27, which in the FIG. 2 condition of use extend parallel to the longitudinal axis 18 of the wrist-band. The spac ing d between these two hinge lines 26 and 27 may be slightly greater than the width dimension w of the microfilm, and the width dimension W of the wrist-band 11 (see FIG. 2), so that the two tabs 24 may in use be bent rearwardly or inwardly as seen at 28 in FIG. 3, past the opposite side edges 29 and 30 of the microfilm and wrist-band, and then be turned inwardly toward one another at 32 to form tab portions 33 which are parallel to the outer main panel 23 and engage the inner surface 34 of the wrist-band to effectively and tightly retain the holder and microfilm on the band. I

Referring again to FIG. 6, the two end tabs 25 of the holder 12 merge with outer rectangular panel 23 at two hinge lines 35 and 36 which are parallel to one another and perpendicular to the previously mentioned hinge lines 26 and 27, and are spaced apart a distance I which is desirably slightly greater than the length l of the microfilm. These two tabs 25 may thus be bent rearwardly past the opposite end edges 37 of the microfilm and then toward one another as seen in FIG. 4 to form two tab portions 38 which engage the rear face 39 of the microfilm and retain and confine it against the back side of the outer wall 23 of the holder. These tabs 38 are thus received between the microfilm and the outer surface 19 of the wrist-band, and preferably are of a length to approximately meet one another at 40 in FIG.

To now describe the manner of application of the microfilm to the wrist-band, assume that the holder 12 is initially in the condition of FIG. 7, in which the two end tabs 25 have already been bent to positions in which they define between these tabs and the outer panel 23 of the holder a guideway or pocket 41 accessible from either the upper side or the lower side of that pocket as seen in FIG. 7. The microfilm 13 can then be inserted downwardly or upwardly into this guideway 41, following which the two tabs 25 may be pressed inwardly against the microfilm to effectively retain it in position adjacent panel 23, with the peripheral edges of the rectangular microfilm extending essentially along but spaced slightly inwardly from the peripheral edges of panel 23. The assembly is then placed against the outer face of band 11 as seen in FIG. 8, and the second pair of tabs 24 are bent inwardly to their FIGS. 2 through 5 positions of engagement with the back surface of the wrist-band, to thus clamp the entire holder and microfilm on the band. The stiffness of the metal retains the four tabs in the illustrated positions of FIGS. 2 through 5, until an emergency arises in which the medical information on the microfilm must be utilized. The two tabs 24 effectively'protect two opposite side edges of the microfilm, while the end tabs 25 protect the other two edges of the rectangular microfilm, so that the film is protected against contact by the user or his clothing or other objects while being worn, and is additionally protected from moisture or the like by the waterproof and air tight coating 22 on the film.

When an emergency arises and it is desired to have access to the information on the microfilm, a doctor or nurse, or another person, or the wearer, may bend tabs 24 back to their FIG. 8 condition in which the' device may be removed from wrist-band 11, following which the microfilm 13 may be easily withdrawn from the device either by pulling it upwardly or downwardly in FIG. 7, or by opening the two additional tabs 25 to provide full access to the microfilm. The film may then be placed in a microfilm reader, and the pertinent medical information carried thereon, giving the entire pertinent medical history, blood characteristics, illnesses, susceptibility, immunities, individual prescriptions and prescribed treatments, etc. of the wearer, can be read from the microfilm in detail, to enable fully informed treatment of the wearer.

While a certain specific embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed as typical, the invention is of course not limited to this particular form, but rather is applicable broadly to all such variations as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claimi l. The combination comprising:

a wrist-band adapted to extend about the wrist of a wearer;

a holder carried by said wrist-band; and

a medical record sheet retained by said holder and having medical information relating to the wearer recorded thereon;

said holder comprising a sheet of bendable material having substantial stiffness to remain in any condition to which it is bent until forcibly deformed from that condition;

said bendable sheet having a first portion received at a first side of the wrist-band essentially parallel thereto; said record sheet being received and confinedbetween said first portion of said bendable sheet and said first side of the wrist-band;

said bendable sheet forming a pair of tabs projecting from said first portion thereof and bent to positions of reception behind said record sheet and between the record sheet and said first side of the wristband;

said bendable sheet forming a second pair of tabs projecting from said first portion thereof and bent into engagement with said wrist-band at a side thereof opposite said first side to retain the holder and record sheet on the wrist-band.

2. The combination as recited in claim 1, in which said record sheet is a microfilm having medical information relating to the wearer photographically recorded thereon.

3. The combination as recited in claim 1, in which said first portion of said bendable sheet is essentially rectangular, said first pair of tabs projecting from a first pair of opposite edges of said rectangular portion of the bendable sheet and being turned inwardly toward one another at the back side of said record sheet, said second pair of tabs extending from a second pair of opposite edges of said rectangular. portion of the bendable sheet and being turned inwardly towardone another at said side of the wrist-band opposite said first side.

4. The combination as recited in claim 1, in which said record sheet is a microfilm having medical information recorded photographically thereon, said microfilm being covered with a waterproof material to prevent damage thereto. 

1. The combination comprising: a wrist-band adapted to extend about the wrist of a wearer; a holder carried by said wrist-band; and a medical record sheet retained by said holder and having medical information relating to the wearer recorded thereon; said holder comprising a sheet of bendable material having substantial stiffness to remain in any condition to which it is bent until forcibly deformed from that condition; said bendable sheet having a first portion received at a first side of the wrist-band essentially parallel thereto; said record sheet being received and confined between said first portion of said bendable sheet and said first side of the wrist-band; said bendable sheet forming a pair of tabs projecting from said first portion thereof and bent to positions of reception behind said record sheet and between the record sheet and said first side of the wrist-band; said bendable sheet forming a second pair of tabs projecting from said first portion thereof and bent into engagement with said wrist-band at a side thereof opposite said first side to retain the holder and record sheet on the wrist-band.
 2. The combination as recited in claim 1, in which said record sheet is a microfilm having medical information relating to the wearer photographically recorded thereon.
 3. The combination as recited in claim 1, in which said first portion of said bendable sheet is essentially rectangular, said first pair of tabs projecting from a first pair of opposite edges of said rectangular portion of the bendable sheet and being turned inwardly toward one another at the back side of said record sheet, said second pair of tabs extending from a second pair of opposite edges of said rectangular portion of the bendable sheet and being turned inwardly toward one another at said side of the wrist-band opposite said first side.
 4. The combination as recited in claim 1, in which said record sheet is a microfilm having medical information recorded photographically thereon, said microfilm being covered with a waterproof material to prevent damage thereto. 